Mercedes is more Vulnerable this Year: Ricciardo

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo is of the opinion that Mercedes are vulnerable this F1 season. But he also believes that they still have the toughest package despite the occasional weakness.

Mercedes nabbed four straight drivers’ and constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2017 and are locked in a tight battle with Ferrari this season.

As of Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton has fallen behind Sebastian Vettel in the championship. Mercedes’ double-retirement in Austria has not helped the situation either. The team came under fire during the race for a bad strategy call while Hamilton was leading.

Ricciardo said: “They are not as dominant as they have been the last few years.

“That was inevitably going to start to mellow out at some point.

“I still think they are the overall toughest package to beat on the grid but they’ve shown some signs of weaknesses in some areas.

“Compared to how they’ve been, yeah they look vulnerable, but still in the big scheme of things they are a strong team and difficult to beat. “

Ricciardo was awaiting a Mercedes offer as an alternative to Red Bull for 2019. But now, he looks likely to stay with the team that is yet to give him the platform for a title challenge.

So far, Red Bull has won three of the first 10 races in 2018. But, Ricciardo’s success in China and Max Verstappen’s victory in Austria were down to luck.

However, the Australian is sure that Red Bull will win more races this season. Sadly, its lack of “real pace” means he has accepted his title chance is slim.

“I still don’t think we’ve got the real pace every weekend to convince ourselves that we can be there [in the title fight],” said Ricciardo.

“I guess Max and myself probably take too many points away from each other – Lewis and Seb are doing all the winning there [at Mercedes and Ferrari].

“We are good enough to win more races. We need to find a little bit to be there on more tracks.

“Hopefully the ones we expect to be quick on, we are. If we come fifth and sixth in Budapest, we’re probably going to be pretty pissed off.”